Addressing challenges with aging parents can feel awkward and uncomfortable. However, as an adult child, you must help your aging parents navigate these years safely. This means addressing important topics such as driving safety. Here at Central Lakes Insurance Brokers, serving Edina, MN, we want to help you with these important topics. Keep reading to learn more about talking with parents about driving safety. 

Address Problems Quickly

If your aging parent is already experiencing safety issues with driving, you cannot ignore the problems. Even though this may feel very foreign to you, you must address the problems quickly for their safety. Driving safety issues could include traffic violations, accidents, or near accidents. Please pay attention to anything your parent shares concerning close calls they may have had while driving. A great way to gauge how well your parent is driving now is to intermittently ride with them somewhere as they drive. 

Be Gentle When Addressing Problems 

Your parent will react better to a conversation that is founded on compassion and concern rather than anger and irritation. Consider how you will approach these conversations, and be sure to approach them intentionally and thoughtfully, not emotionally and without forethought. 

Consult With Their Doctor

If driving safety quickly becomes an issue, you might consider consulting with their doctor. This might give you better insight into what they are dealing with that might affect their ability to drive safely. 

If you want to learn more about auto insurance, please get in touch with us at Central Lakes Insurance Brokers, serving Edina, MN, and the surrounding areas. We will happily answer your questions and find the right insurance products for you. 

If you’re a driver in Edina, MN, you need auto insurance. That’s because Minnesota requires all drivers to have liability coverage. If you cause an accident, your insurance will pay for the damage to the other person’s vehicle if you’re at fault.

Liability Coverage

There are other types of auto insurance coverage available, but liability is the only one required by the state of Minnesota. If you cause an accident and your damages exceed your liability coverage, you’ll have to pay for the rest out of your pocket. That means you could technically get by with just this one type of coverage, but it’s not recommended.

Other Types of Coverage

If you want to be fully protected, you’ll need more than a liability policy, such as collision and comprehensive.

Collision Coverage

Collision coverage will pay for the damage to your vehicle if you cause an accident. This type of coverage is optional, but it’s a good idea if you want to be protected from paying out of pocket for repairs to your vehicle. Your Central Lakes Insurance Brokers representative can help you find the best policy for your needs.

Comprehensive Coverage

Comprehensive coverage will pay for the damage to your vehicle if it’s damaged in an incident that’s not an accident, such as a storm or theft. This type of coverage is optional unless you have a vehicle loan, which may require extra insurance. However, it’s still a good idea so that you won’t find yourself without a car and extensive repair bills.

If you’re a driver in Edina, MN, it’s crucial to have auto insurance. Make sure you have liability coverage to protect you from an accident. You may also want to have collision and comprehensive coverage to protect your car in other situations. Your Central Lakes Insurance Brokers representative can help you find the best policy for your needs.

Auto insurance is something that is designed to meet your particular needs. It can be customized in many ways. It is important that you pay attention to your coverage. No one wants to pay too much or have too little auto insurance in the event you need to use it. At Central Lakes Insurance Brokers in Edina, MN we take our responsibility as independent insurance agents seriously. We make sure all of our customers have the mandated amount of auto insurance that the state requires, but we count on them to give us the additional information we need to make recommendations for coverage. 

Review your auto insurance when your policy renews

When it is time for your auto insurance to review you will get a copy of your declaration. The declaration page gives you all the particulars about your policy. It tells you who the covered drivers are, the vehicles, and the amount and type of coverage you have on each vehicle. One of the first things to consider is if your liability coverage is adequate. If your financial situation has improved, you may be under-protected. 

When you add or subtract a driver

The drivers you have on your policy can affect your premium. If your teen drivers have moved on you will be able to get a better rate, and maybe it is time to look for a new carrier. If you have added a driver the same is true, you need to consider if you have enough coverage for a young driver. 

When your car gets old

There comes a time in the life of all vehicles when having collision and comprehensive coverage is no longer cost-effective, and you may want to consider removing that coverage. 

Contact Central Lakes Insurance Brokers in Edina, MN when you need to discuss your auto insurance coverage. 

Summer is coming. That means changes in the way you drive, how you enjoy your weekends, and even how you spend your time with the people you love. People are out on the roads more. You’re taking pleasure rides in your old cruisers. You’re taking the boat out of the dry dock, and you’re even going RVing for extended weekends and long vacations.

All these things mean you need to have a long conversation with your local insurance agent at Central Lakes Insurance Brokers in Edina, MN to make sure you have the right insurance protection for your summertime fun.

These are just a few reasons why the weeks leading up to summer are the ideal time to make sure you have your insurance affairs in order.

1. You always want to know you have the right protection before accidents happen. No one wants to discover all too late that your boat wasn’t covered for liability protection, or not covered for nearly enough.
2. Your needs can change over a long winter, and you want to make sure you’re not overpaying for recreational vehicles, watercraft, etc. you may have sold or scrapped over the winter.
3. You may have made life changes that place you at greater risks requiring additional insurance protection. You want to make sure you have those needs covered, too.

Central Lakes Insurance Brokers are happy to serve the summertime insurance needs of families in and around Brainerd and Edina, MN. Summer is coming. Contact us today to learn more about our insurance protection for auto, watercraft, RVs, and more today and let us audit your current coverage to see if you have the “just right” protection you need.

Your basic auto owner’s insurance gives you standard coverage over your vehicle. However, there are limits to what your current auto insurance policy is able to provide, which means you may be at risk for out-of-pocket expenses. Instead, there are a number of auto insurance add-ons to consider. If you live in or around Edina, MN, Central Lakes Insurance Brokers can help you sift through the different policy options to find what works best for you and your budget. 

Roadside Assistance

You never know when you’ll have a problem with your vehicle while away from the house. This might be a dead battery, a flat tire, or something more serious. Contacting a tow truck, especially if you’re more than a few miles away, really adds up. Roadside Assistance provides you with this coverage. 

Personal Injury Protection

If you are injured during an auto accident you’ll find PIP coverage will cover more of your healthcare costs than standard auto insurance (and likely your health insurance). Even if your health insurance provider covers some of these expenses, adding PIP to your current coverage will help pay for co-pays and deductibles. 

Uninsured Motorist Coverage

If you’re ever involved with a driver who isn’t insured you may be stuck paying the bill. Uninsured motorist coverage protects you from this issue. 

If you haven’t gone over your auto owner’s insurance policy in some time there is no time like the present. With the aid of Central Lakes Insurance Brokers, a professional agent can look over your current policy and help you decide if there are add-ons that will improve your coverage (and save you money). So if you have questions about your current policy and live around Edina, MN, now is the time to give Central Lakes Insurance Brokers a call. 

Life in Edina, MN is just fine, but everyone deserves a vacation sometime. So you plan for a big travel excursion, pack everything needed, jump on a plane and get to the airport to rent a car to your hotel destination. However, at the counter, the clerk asks you an odd question: do you want their car insurance for the rental car or do you have your own?

Most folks traveling will forget that a lot of car insurance policies assume people will travel from time to time, and the policies include language that covers a person when driving a rental car. The coverage provided will tend to be the same as what was provided for an owned car, i.e., if one has a basic insurance liability-only policy, that’s all that will be covered on a rental car. If you have comprehensive, the same will apply to the rental accordingly. However, many folks forget or are not aware, and then they kick out $50 or so for a temporary coverage that may not be needed at all.

For Edina, MN drivers and those in the greater area, Central Lakes Insurance Brokers can help. They can vet policies and point out exactly what will be provided for travel coverage and how it will work. This kind of helpful knowledge not only answers the question at the rental car desk, it helps people save money and understand their coverage in all situations far better. And that makes people better drivers overall before they get on the road. So, if you’re not sure and you have a big trip coming up, give Central Lakes Insurance Brokers a call about your car insurance. They can help make your trip a memorable one instead of a mistake.